Publication 464, 1902, Airship contest rules

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Original title Airship contest rules
Simple title Airship contest rules
Authors
Date 1902
Countries US
Languages en
Keywords airship, competition, St. Louis World's Fair, Thomas W. Mosher, Abbott Lawrence Rotch, Octave Chanute, Samuel Pierpont Langley, Calvin M. Woodward, Robert Moore, F. J. V. Skiff, engine, balloon, LTA, kite, glider
Journal Aer. World
Related to aircraft? 1
Page count 1
Word count 747
Wikidata id


Full text:

Airship Contest Rules.

Prizes and Conditions for St. Louis Trials in 1904 — First Prize $100,000 for the Competitor Traveling a Ten-mile L- Shaped Course at Better than 20 Miles an Hour — More Prizes for Gliding and Kite Flying.

The principal prize will be $100,000, and $50,000 will be awarded in minor prizes. Each entrant will have to pay a fee of $250, which will be refunded as soon as satisfactory appara- tus is set up on the fair grounds.

The competition is open to all without limi- tation as to the power used or mechanical principals involved. All preliminary entries are to be confidential.

No vehicle requiring- any support from the earth and not perfectly free in flight is to be admitted. Also, no applicant will be admit- ted to the competition who does not pre- sent evidence of having made a flight over at least a mile course and return with a machine similar in principle to that which he proposes to use in the competition. The aeronautical jury may rule out. after due investigation, any machine deemed too hazardous to life. Each vehicle must carry at least one person in the contests.

The competitor making the best average speed, provided that he has made the entire course three times at an average speed of not less than twenty miles an hour each time, will receive the grand prize of $100,000, together with suitable diploma, medal or certificate.

There will be four minor prizes. First, $3,500; second, $3,000; third, $2,000; fourth, $1,500. These will be awarded in order of speed, to the four competitors coming nearest to the record of the winner of the grand prize, provided each of them shall have made the full course at least three times, and each time at an average speed of at least ten miles an hour. Each winner of one of these prizes will receive a suitable diploma, medal or certi- ficate recording his achievement.

The prescribed course will begin and end in the athletic amphitheater adjoining the aeronautic stabling grounds in the exposition enclosure. The course will be shaped like the letter L. one leg being shorter and in full view from all parts of the Exposition grounds. It will be marked by three captive balloons. The aeronaut will have his choice of the di- rection in which to start, but he must turn

around the captive balloons in opposite direc- tions, that is, one to the right and the other to the left.

The length of the entire course will not be less than ten miles (sixteen kilometers), nor more than 15 miles (24 kilometers), reckoned in an air line from center to center of the cap- tive balloons. The exact length and direc- tion will be determined and accurately meas- ured by the international jury having charge of the contests.

Every competitor will make as many trials as he chooses within the prescribed dates. No trial will be considered by the judges in which he does not go around the course once, and the navigator must make in the period al- lotted for the contests at least three complete trips around the course. The average- time made on each of his three best trips must be at the rate of at least twenty miles an hour, including the time consumed in the starting and landing, reckoned from the time the vehi- cle parts free of the ground or starting stage until his car again touches the earth within a radius of fifty yards from, the starting point without serious injury to either man or appar- atus.

The average speed of the machine will be computed for the actual airline distance over the ground, making no allowance for the wind or for deviations from straight lines to or from the captive balloons.

The starts must be made between 6 o'clock in the morning and sundown, and the compe- titive flights must take place between June i and Sept. 10. The specific weeks for the trial will be determined by the international jury, and announced in advance. Each com- petitor must make at least one trial within each week, but he may choose his own day or days, which must be days on which the Exposi- tion is open to the public.

If. there is a tie, it must be sailed off, and the successful competitor must give three public exhibition after Sept. 30. In addi- tion to the competition for the grand prize, others are offered.

A prize of $2,500 is offered for the flying machine, not carrying an operator, making a straightaway run of a mile and return to ap- proximately the starting point in the shortest time of actual flight.

A prize of $2,000 is offered for the gliding machine, mounted by an operator, which shall advance in a calm or against the wind at a vertical angle most acute with the horizon.

It shall take at least twenty glides of not less than 400 feet each. A prize of $1,000 is offered for the gliding machine, mounted by an operator, exhibiting the best automatic sta- bility in the wind during at least forty glides, not less than 400 feet each, under the rules to be prescribed by the judges.

A first prize of $2,500, and a second prize of $1,000 are offered for the airship motors — other than the exact machine winning the grand prize — having the least weight and the greatest efficiency in proportion to their power. One prize of $3,coo is offered for a successful attempt to drive an airship motor by energy transmitted through space, either in the form of electric radiation or in some other form of electrical energy, to an actual amount of one- tenth of a horse power at the point of recep- tion and at a distance of at least 1,000 feet.

Four prizes of $5,000 each are offered to the aeronauts who win in the following contests open to balloons and airships or aeronautical vehicles of any type to carry at least one per- son :

For the greatest altitude attained, starting from the Exposition grounds.

For the longest time in the air, starting from the Exposition grounds.

For landing nearest to the Washington Monument in the city of Washington, D. C, the start being made from the Exposition grounds in St. Louis.

For the longest distance traveled in one flight in any direction, starting from the Ex- position grounds.

There will be two classes of competitors for kites, for kites of 800 feet of line and for kites going one mile high. In the competition with 800 feet of line the prizes will be : First prize, $500; second prize, $300; third prize, $200. In the competition to a height of at least one mile: First prize, $800; second prize, $500 ; third prize, $200.

Each contest must be two hours in duration, and all the kites must be maintained in the air during this entire period.

All hot-air balloons are barred. The jury will be made up of men of all nations.

The committee of experts in charge of the aeronautic contests for the St. Louis Exposi- tion of 1904, has formulated the rules which will govern the contests. The committee is composed of Thomas W. Mosher, of New York, Prof. A. L- Rotch, of Harvard, Octave Chanute, of Chicago, Prof. S. P. Lang- lev, of the Smithsonian Institution, Prof. Cal- vin M. Woodward, of Washington University, Robert Moore, of St. Louis, and F. J. V. Skiff,

Director of Exhibits.

Sources

  • Brockett 1910, page 34, entry 464: Airship contest rules. Aer. World, Vol. 1, No. 2, 1902, Glenville, Ohio, pp. 21-22. S (464
  • Scan at Internet Archive